The Railway Protection Force (RPF) nabbed two courier boys in two separate incidents on Thursday with Rs 30 lakh in suspected hawala cash and 26 packets of gold and silver at Nagpur railway station, officials said.
Acting on a tip-off about suspected movement of hawala money aboard train no-12290 Nagpur -Mumbai Duronto express at 8.40 pm, an RPF team searched the train, said RPF officials.
“The RPF searched the train and apprehended a passenger Mahendra Tarode (31) and found Rs 30 lakh unaccounted cash with him,” said Senior Divisional Security Commissioner (RPF) Jyoti Kumar Satija .
Satija said that Tarode is a resident of Akola and is working as a courier boy with Indrayani Courier (Nagpur) and was supposed to take the courier to the firm’s Mumbai office.
During the investigation Tarode revealed that one more courier boy on Wednesday had started from Mumbai for Nagpur on the 122899 Mumbai -Nagpur Duronto express with some gold ornaments.
The Mumbai unit of the RPF was alerted and personnel boarded the 122899 Mumbai -Nagpur Duronto express at Igatpuri.
Subsequently, when the train reached Nagpur at 9 am on Thursday the RPF team apprehended the suspect Shyam Bankuwale (38),a resident of Akola.
“Bankuwale is also an employee of Indrayani courier and 26 packets of gold and silver were found on him during investigation. We have asked the suspects for documents for the cash, gold and silver,” Satija said.
The suspects have been handed over to the officials of the Income Tax department for further investigation, he said.
